New Jerry Goldsmith Projects in 2019?

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It is time to create once again the annual New Jerry Goldsmith Projects-thread which is supposed to gather information and hints of upcoming Jerry Goldsmith titles in 2019. There were a few assumptions and predictions from the last year that are still very reasonable:

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Legend is probably lost? That's a bummer! What is the source of this statement?

Legend is a Jerry score I am almost certain I will like a lot, but I've been holding out on checking it out until the specialty labels finally do a comprehensive/modern updated version. Is it really so sure no such release could be forthcoming?

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Speaking relatively, yes (quoting James Fitzpatrick: the only tapes that exist of LEGEND are the ones I used ... and I used every bit of music on those tapes....and the studio where LEGEND was recorded , Sony/Whifield Street, my favourite London studio to record in, ceased to exist a few years ago ...as did their tape library). But of course, nobody actually was witness to a cackling Rumpelstilskin burning all those tapes. Given the modest price and the fact it's Goldsmith last masterpiece, i'd still say it's a minor crime not to own any version, digitally or else, of the old Silva (or Varése) 70-minute version.

POTA will not sound great whatever you do with it, The Swarm sounds great in the released versions, so i hold out for a sound update of Supergirl, which isn't a great score but has enough Star Trek/Fantasy panache that the current versions rankle.

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Never say never -- we've seen Damnation Alley and The Reincarnation of Peter Proud released (as well as non-Jerry scores we were told couldn't happen like Alien3, Dracula, and Murder By Death just this past year). But yeah, James Fitzpatrick's comments on Legend make it seem highly unlikely that a further expansion would happen. I think it's in the same camp as Link and we'll have to content ourselves with the poor sounding footwarmer for the unreleased cues. At least the greatest highlights have been commercially released on the expanded Silva though.

PotA can sound a LOT better than the Varese complete edition, as the previous Intrada edition demonstrated.

I couldn't disagree more about Legend being "Goldsmith's last masterpiece" of course.

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The Last Castle (The latest Jerry Goldsmith score, not owned by Varese, which is very likely to be expanded by Intrada or Quartet.)

Has Quartet ever expanded a DreamWorks title? I think this is more likely to come out from LLL than Quartet, but you're probably right about Intrada being most likely.

I think you're probably right about AFO and USM being worked on by Varese. I hope you're right about Timeline, but anniversaries aren't always taken advantage of -- witness PotA, Looney Tunes, and Matinee just this past year, for example. I also really hope for Medicine Man and Love Field Deluxe from Varese soon. And call me crazy if you like...but also Mom and Dad Save the World.

I'm hoping with the Universal vaults opening up more that Intrada or LLL will bring us a definitive edition of MacArthur and the premiere of The Don Is Dead this coming year. Of course any other premieres that can happen would send me over the moon...maybe tapes can be discovered for Crawlspace, The Man, or Shamus! I live in hope anyway.

I'm also hoping that the few remaining Fox scores including on the Varese Goldsmith at Fox box set can finally be expanded to complete form: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Anna and the King, and yes...S*P*Y*S. Speaking of the Fox box...as with Von Ryan's Express, The Detective, Shock Treatment, etc., Damnation Alley was on that and therefore not a premiere from Intrada. They added over a third of the score, though...some might say the best third.

I'm hoping the reason AFO hasn't happened yet is because they're dealing with both McNeely and Randy Newman -- the latter's unused score really is quite good music on its own, and deserves an official release, if Randy isn't too uncomfortable having it released alongside Jerry & Joel's work. There might be issues with that of course.

Pretty sure Twilight's Last Gleaming only has one short bit unreleased (maybe around half a minute) -- this might be lost and not included on the previous album because it was recorded as part of a pickup session. I hope it can be found and released though because it's pretty badass.

I wouldn't mind for The Flim-Flam Man and A Girl Named Sooner twofer to be reissued with a sound and art upgrade. Some folks at the FSM board have at least put out some superior custom artwork for both scores in the custom covers thread there.

The Public Eye *was* definitely recorded according to Mike Ross-Trevor (who was there working on it!) But it seems the recording may have been lost or misplaced since then, so it still might need to be freshly recorded. Babe was apparently not recorded (although there are some little indications that it may have been)...however it does survive in written form (apparently Jerry completed around three quarters of the score, on paper):

Here's hoping it can be released some day. Seems like a good Kickstarter subject for Goldsmith fans. Speaking of unused scores that were written, The Kid is another project Jerry worked on with written scores surviving in the Academy Herrick library.

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Roger's post is definitely at that link; Forums have more than one page don't forget

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The film Version of The Unicorns has a 30 second bridge for French Horns (absent from all albums) that make an already fabulous cue simply incredible. Sure, one can say "Why bitch over missing a mere 30 seconds?", but the content within it evokes more power (IMHO) than the whole 8 minute piece.

Perhaps it was recorded as an insert?

Either way, the inclusion of that (if possible) would have me rebuying the score.

I'd buy a Tadlow re-recording if they included it!

Not entirely true. The expanded Unicorns track was available on the original Film Trax CD and the Japanese CD. I have no idea why it was dropped from the expanded editions. There’s one more unreleased cue that I can think of. And those masters do exist.

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When Roger says "those masters do exist.", I hope he means masters for the complete score, and that a definitive Intrada edition is in the works. That's what I've been waiting for!

I hope so too which is why I asked for clarification on that statement. However, just because masters exist doesn't mean Intrada can produce a definitive edition. Last we've all heard (from MV I think), Legend and Supergirl are still controlled by Silva.

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Whoa, seriously? It sounds kinda like what Jerry would have written in the early 80s with no budget for an orchestra. It's interesting to be sure, but it's kinda like PotA by way of Runaway.

I prefer the original, though I'm impressed by the one-man work that went into the re-rec (and if a re-recording with orchestra is ever produced, we know who should perform the percussion parts!) And again, the Intrada though incomplete luckily has much superior sound to the Varese.

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Well, the Tadlow re-creation of The Blue Max isn't perfect, performance-wise, and I actually prefer the original recording remastered by LLL. I think the Intrada album shows the original recording can sound good...and no doubt a Mattesino restoration with modern tech would sound even better than that, much less the Varese with disappointing sound. If the LLL Blue Max can have as good a sound improvement as it did, then I think PotA can have a similar sound improvement.

I don't think there will be any more Tadlow Goldsmith recordings, but if there are, I'd prefer they focus on scores that are apparently lost like Black Patch, Face of a Fugitive, Shamus, Pursuit, The Man, etc. Or something with MUCH more problematic sound than PotA, like Seconds (one of my absolute favorites, and I'm still grateful for the LLL despite being taken from stems with occasional dialogue bleed) or The Satan Bug (the more badass half of which has intrusive SFX) or heck even The Reincarnation of Peter Proud (what did you end up thinking of that, by the way? I think it's a fascinating, unique, creative, and effective score...but Damnation Alley is so much more fun as an album, for my tastes)

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Whoa, seriously? It sounds kinda like what Jerry would have written in the early 80s with no budget for an orchestra. It's interesting to be sure, but it's kinda like PotA by way of Runaway.

It's not exactly a score i put on for listening pleasure. For intellectual stimulation, the old releases just sound too brittle and shrill for me. I can have that for rip-roaring stuff like '100 Rifles' but 'Seconds' or POTA...no.

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Well, the Tadlow re-creation of The Blue Max isn't perfect, performance-wise, and I actually prefer the original recording remastered by LLL.

What are refering to? I listened to this and thought that the new performance is basically a copy of the original performance. Do you mean individual sections of the orchestra that don't do a perfect job?

2 hours ago, Yavar Moradi said:

I don't think there will be any more Tadlow Goldsmith recordings, but if there are, I'd prefer they focus on scores that are apparently lost like Black Patch, Face of a Fugitive, Shamus, Pursuit, The Man, etc.

Why do you think that? I was hoping for Lionheart and Planet of the Apes (in case, Varese doesn't care about improved reissues of the originals) to happen sometime. Isn't the re-recording trend a rising business (with Intrada and Quartet also joining the club).

2 hours ago, Yavar Moradi said:

The Reincarnation of Peter Proud (what did you end up thinking of that, by the way? I think it's a fascinating, unique, creative, and effective score...but Damnation Alley is so much more fun as an album, for my tastes)

I got the CD yesterday and listened to it today. I agree with you on "fascinating, unique, creative, and effective". It is a very special score, but it is also very hard to get into. You must really be a music, film music and Jerry Goldsmith admirer to get anything out of these restrained, subtle, eerie and unpleasant 62 minutes. The sound quality doesn't make access easier. However, since I am an admirer of Jerry Goldsmith, I am looking forward to "grapple" with that very special score.

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It's not exactly a score i put on for listening pleasure. For intellectual stimulation, the old releases just sound too brittle and shrill for me. I can have that for rip-roaring stuff like '100 Rifles' but 'Seconds' or POTA...no.

That's interesting. I do agree about the Varese CD being brittle and shrill but I think the Intrada sounds much better.

I don't think "brittle and shrill" is among the problems of Seconds, even though it doesn't sound great. But I can't get enough of the sad and brittle (emotionally, not sound-wise) love theme from that.

Yavar

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What are referring to? I listened to this and thought that the new performance is basically a copy of the original performance. Do you mean individual sections of the orchestra that don't do a perfect job?

Try the opening of The Attack and compare the cool and unique off-kilter drum rhythm of the original performance to the Tadlow, which changes it.
Another moment that feels off: The wind machine in The Baloon/First Blood/Victory is way too prominent. It's super subtle in the film score but here it is unbalanced and overwhelms.

Most of the recording is good, but it's not perfect. Maybe I'm just pickier since this is such a seminal Goldsmith work compared to something like The Salamander or Hour of the Gun, which I compared less closely on. But on the other hand, QBVII is one of my favorite Goldsmith scores of all time and I think Tadlow pretty much NAILED that one.

1 hour ago, Brundlefly said:

Why do you think that? I was hoping for Lionheart and Planet of the Apes (in case, Varese doesn't care about improved reissues of the originals) to happen sometime. Isn't the re-recording trend a rising business (with Intrada and Quartet also joining the club).

I think it because James Fitzpatrick has said as much. In regards to Goldsmith in particular, it was revealed on the FSM board recently that sales of Prometheus's Goldsmith series were disappointing (though not as much as some of their other titles like The Alamo, or Tadlow's Taras Bulba) so Luc van de Ven has opted not to fund any more Goldsmith (and seems to be virtually stopping funding anyway, though he did pay for The Vikings recently).

I think the only Tadlow Goldsmith recording that might happen in the future is a third volume of Thriller to finish off Jerry's contribution to that series, assuming the second volume sold anywhere near as well as the first one apparently did. But this is because Thriller scores are much less expensive to record (small orchestras) than the big things.

1 hour ago, Brundlefly said:

I got the CD yesterday and listened to it today. I agree with you on "fascinating, unique, creative, and effective". It is a very special score, but it is also very hard to get into. You must really be a music, film music and Jerry Goldsmith admirer to get anything out of these restrained, subtle, eerie and unpleasant 62 minutes. The sound quality doesn't make access easier. However, since I am an admirer of Jerry Goldsmith, I am looking forward to "grapple" with that very special score.

I find parts of it easy to get into (the thematic parts are very nice), but the rest is very modernist and challenging, yes. Not that Damnation Alley doesn't have parts like that, but they aren't dominant in the score and there's plenty of rhythm to keep the less melodic parts going. I suspect you'll appreciate Peter Proud more if you ever get around to seeing the film (which was recently put out on Blu-ray). But definitely a score in any case which rewards more with multiple listens, because of all the layers it has. Not an easy score but one you can keep going back to to get more out of.

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I think it because James Fitzpatrick has said as much. In regards to Goldsmith in particular, it was revealed on the FSM board recently that sales of Prometheus's Goldsmith series were disappointing (though not as much as some of their other titles like The Alamo, or Tadlow's Taras Bulba) so Luc van de Ven has opted not to fund any more Goldsmith (and seems to be virtually stopping funding anyway, though he did pay for The Vikings recently).

I think the only Tadlow Goldsmith recording that might happen in the future is a third volume of Thriller to finish off Jerry's contribution to that series, assuming the second volume sold anywhere near as well as the first one apparently did. But this is because Thriller scores are much less expensive to record (small orchestras) than the big things.

I don't think that they've got the balls for that. Sooner or later they give it another try, I bet.

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I added the first release of 2019 to the list: "Warnin﻿g﻿ Shot improved re-release/Archer premiere release by ﻿La-La Land﻿".

Hopefully I'll soon be able to add two more releases:

The forthcoming Varese batch should include at least one Goldsmith score. I'm hoping for expansions of either Air Force One or U.S.Marshals. An improved re-release of Lionheart or Planet of the Apes would be awesome as well.

Last year, Intrada indicated that there would potentially be two Goldsmith releases before their christmas break. Only one of them did happen so far, so the question is, where is the other? It can't be that far off. I can remember a few comments somewhere which implied that a complete score release of Legend is no longer impossible.

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So the last Varese Encore was dedicated to Jerry Goldsmith, but it was not as people expected or wanted it The 'Burbs (cough...30th Anniversary Edition...cough). Instead we got a reissue of Raggedy Man which was out of print for 28 years now!

With three batches this year, that is not going to be the last 2019 Jerry Goldsmith release by Varese Sarabande. I'll be bounding about like a young gazelle, if they keep up the high quality of their most recent releases and just raise the amount of batches per year. In their announcement they sound very motivated and enthusiatic.